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Watching this episode again after 8 or 9 years has really caught me off guard. Here was me thinking that this was one of those renowned Johto fillers that I would never watch again, but here I am almost a decade later and actually enjoying it for the fact that Heracross actually gets some battle time. Who'da thunk?!

That being said, the plot in this episode isn't very compelling and perhaps begins the trend of the Johto saga's one-shot COTD's trying to solve a problem with the help of Ash, Misty and Brock. I found it difficult to watch all the way through, but the saving graces were definitely Heracross and Brock battling. I never remembered Heracross to be such a BEAST in early Johto! Onix went down a little easily to that young Donphan's Rollout though - definitely the beginning of Brock's demise that continues to this day.

Finally, the one thing that depressed me overall from this episode was the fact that Misty and Brock pointed out how Heracross would grow to be a real fighting machine in the future with training under its belt. What compelled the writers to then dump it only a matter of episodes later? Mystery.

EDIT: Then again, after rewatching some more of the Johto episodes up to Azalea Town, it does turn out that Heracross did actually get some decent screentime before it was axed. It's a shame it never got a Gym Battle to show off its battling skills though. However, beating Gary's Magmar in the Silver Conference was still quite a feat to be honest.

I laughed when Brock's actually lost to the baby Donphan. I was all 'Oh why Brock why?' when that happened. I was also relieved when Ash lost the battle today since it showed how much he still needed (and needs) to learn.

Fighting for real American turtles everywhere. Pro-Turtle since 6/30/13

Everyone here immeaditely knew that when ash saw a donphan he was catch one later. And it turned out to be one of his best pokemon ever

BLACK FRIEND CODE :1077 4097 9449
Current runs: Cecil only run of ff4,fighter only run of ff1 and a 6 heart run of skyward sword.
78% Pokémaniac! If Pokémon wasn't here, your life would be very different. You're probably addicted to the Pokémon games and try to get new ones as soon as you can, watch the animé every time and think about Pokémon all day. Yet, something probably gets in the way between you and Pokémon that prevents you from confusing this world and the Pokémon world.
HG nuzlocke run team:butterfree

I saw this episode more recently than most Johto episodes, since I missed it when it first aired, but despite that I didn't find this episode to be that memorable. I did think it was funny when Brock's Onix got owned by Donphan, but other than that, I found this to be a fairly boring episode.

This is the first episode I saw from Johto and I was quite satisfied with Donphan's introduction. That Pokémon is a beast and I'm happy Ash had one later. For the rest was this filler episode a little standard, but still quite enjoyable to watch.

I was really glad that Brock took initiative and actually battled Donphan at the start of this episode; it was a pleasant surprise to see him do something like that. I liked that Rochelle's Donphan herd actually served a purpose by helping her find minerals, and Donphan vs. Heracross part two was brilliant, except from Heracross eating sap.